Death. “For the wages of sin is death.” We are all familiar with physical death: the separation of the soul from the body. But there follows another after that: the separation of the soul from the goodness of God in eternity, which happens because the soul would not unite with God while on earth. It used to be common knowledge that Jesus spoke of hell more than heaven. Since the wisest Teacher spoke of hell more often than he spoke about heaven, it must be more useful to scare than it is to coax. The final Revelation is given for the ‘servants’ of Jesus Christ, the already saved (Revelation 1.1.) The specific revelation of hell is given (note the ‘Pharisees’ in Luke 16.14) for those who are under condemnation. It is always a good idea to rake some truth up from the bowels of hell—from the story that Jesus told as he looked into it with his piercing eye, for most of us are still in peril of perishing. The story is a comparison of the dissimilar futures that two souls came to after their deaths on earth. One man is called ‘the rich man’; his future ended up being hell. The other is Lazarus; he had been the beggar at the rich man’s gate. We will stick to the rich man’s future, and the characteristics of it. (1) The rich man was in torment. He said: “send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue” (Luke 16.24.) The rich man will condescend to let the beggar touch his tongue with his dirty finger? If it has water on it, he will. (2) He was denied his request for relief: “son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented” (verse 25.) (3) He could not leave his place of confinement: “there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (verse 26.) (4) He was depersonalized, known only as ‘a certain rich man,’ while Lazarus was dignified with a name. The rich man’s future, then, came down to this: conscious torment, no relief, no escape, and no name worth remembering. There is some argument about whether this parable is historical or not. There is no consolation in the opinion that Jesus told a story that is not historically true. There is no proof that the story is not historical; there is no proof that this story is merely a parable. In any case, Jesus didn’t waste his time telling stories that do not touch, in decisive and material ways, ultimate reality. As a matter of fact, be it a parable or not, the story of Lazarus and the rich man only dimly conveys what an experience of hellfire is. “But those things that are used as similitudes, instead of exceeding the reality, are only faint images and shadows of the torments of hell” (Jonathan Edwards, Unless You Repent, p. 35.) Stories of hell are told to make the strongest impression on sinners in order for them to take every possible pain to avoid what is not possible to convey the horribleness of. Jesus taught spiritual truth. He did it plainly and by parable. It makes no difference whether the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is historical or not.
This future—the wrath of God endured in hell—will be the unending reality for every unfortunate soul who refuses God’s alternative offer. Not only that, but it gets worse than hell when hell and all of its grimacing inhabitants are cast into a lake of fire at the final judgment: “This is the second death” (Revelation 20.14.) What we thought was quintessential (hell) ends up being merely penultimate (because the lake of fire is even worse.) This is the future of man without God. Thin-skinned Christians do not like to hear the tribulations of hell referred to as ‘torture.’ But torture means anguish that is inflicted. And what is that but a description of being punished? To be punished by provoked omnipotence must be a torturous experience. This is why the word ‘torture’ is often used in older books of divinity to characterize the agonies of hell. The fate of the impenitent is terrible beyond words to describe. It is an ‘outer darkness,’ wherein is a continual ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Matthew 25.30.) Sometimes in Scripture it is difficult to ascertain whether hell is being described, or else the lake of fire that hell is eventually poured into. Hell, hellfire, the lake of fire—it is not wrong to treat these synonymously; but there are two stages of punishment in the afterlife, just as there are many aspects of punishment. There is hell, where remorseless sinners are consigned to wait to be finally judged; and there is the lake of fire that follows upon the final judgment. In the Bible, many similitudes are used to describe the future that impenitent sinners must one day have for their everlasting experience. How all of these similes agree and harmonize exceeds our ability to fathom, no matter which, whether hell or the lake of fire, is the subject. “Everything that gives an idea of an extreme misery is used to set forth hell torments because no one is sufficient to express it” (Jonathan Edwards, Unless You Repent, pp. 35, 36.)
Considering the future that obstinate sinners are headed toward, what a shame it is that the majority of them will not pause to contemplate their likely destination! The future that they are speeding toward is more harrowing than their worst nightmare. The agony will be worse than the most lingering, painful death. It will be worse than dying of stomach cancer forever. The nightmare will be one that no soul will be able to wake from, for souls in hell will be eternally awake. The irreversibility of this outcome is the worst aspect of it.
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